Loved and Lost
by Lastchaos Darknoman
Summary: 'Whoever said "it's better to have loved and lost than to have never even loved at all" was full of bull' Jaune thought as his partner had yet to return from a simple hunt during their fourth year at Beacon. The rest of her team and team RWBY was sent out to investigate were her hunt was located and find out what was keeping the young huntress.
1. Chapter 1

**A.N* Hello guys this is my first hurt/loss fanfic so I hope it's not too bad. I got this idea at like four in the morning so why not write when you can't sleep eh? I hope the grammar and sentence structure isn't too bad as I wrote this on little sleep. Without further adieu here it is.**

Jaune was inconsolable. No one knew what to say or do to get him to at least say something. They all had felt what he was feeling now, but he was taking it harder than the rest of them. To him it was as if light had lost its luminescence, words had lost all meaning, and food had lost all taste. Even sleep held no safety from his feelings. All pleasant dreams he had were replaced by nightmares. Each one more gruesome and haunting than the last. It had been two weeks since she had left on that solo mission to clear an area of rambunctious beowolves. Pyrrha had gone missing and all evidence leads to the conclusion of her death.

_*two weeks before*_

It was their fourth year of Beacon and students were able to accept contracts for hunts to provide an easier transition after graduation. It was during one of these low class hunts -presumably misgraded by whoever offered it- that Pyrrha had not returned from. Team RWBY and the rest of JNPR were dispatched to look into what happened. All they found was a torn red sash she would wear around her waist and her buckler Akouo. There was no other sign of the amazon as they searched and soon they were ordered back to Beacon. Jaune more or less had to be dragged back as he refused to quit looking for her.

Once the report submitted by Ruby was looked at Pyrrha was presumed dead and both teams would receive time off from classes to grieve for their friend. Tears had been shed, condolences given by anyone they saw, and time to deal with it in their own way was given. Soon, all had accepted the fact and moved on with their lives knowing that it was the risk of their job. That is except for Jaune. He rarely talked and slept; and even did not attend classes when their grieving period was over.

It was not until night when his teammates returned to their dorm and found that their leader was missing. Walking out into the darkness, face set in a scowl Jaune left to hunt those who took his partner, his _girlfriend. _

Ren and Nora woke early with the sound of an opening door. With weary eyes they turned on the light and looked over their leader who had returned. His face was smeared with dirt, eyes bloodshot, and several new scratches on his armour. These were the least disturbing factors of his appearance. His clothes were dyed a new color, _red_. It was recognizable immediately where he had been and what he had been doing. Both tried to talk to him about it and convince him to stop before he hurt himself. They received no response.

Jaune attended classes the next day with his team, though he rarely paid attention his face was always the same. Lifeless, as if all emotion had been drained from him. During meals he barely ate, and continued his silence. After his last class of the day he stood and calmly walked to his dorm room. After slipping into his armour he again left not to be seen again until early morning. This routine continued for days. Into the weekend, and back into the beginning of a new week.

By the middle of the second week no one tried to stop him anymore. Ren and Nora along with team RWBY had tried to get him to stay and not leave but to no avail. His grades had been slipping and even the professors began to get worried for the young Arc boy.

He once again ventured out into the darkness of the Emerald Forest. As he walked he found his path unguarded. No grimm dared to cross his path again in this part of the forest. Packs of Beowolves and Ursa would swarm him, but none would make it out. The grimm in this area had learned to fear the hunter and not to cross his path. That is not true for the deeper parts of the forest however. Packs would come and go, each time with less numbers than they had before and without slowing down his trek through their forest.

Countless grim had fallen before him as his "walk" through the forest progressed. He soon became exhausted and his vision began to fade in and out. His clouded mind began to play tricks on him. His vision would fade in and he would catch a glimpse of pale skin or red hair retreating behind a tree. When he would go to investigate he would find nothing. No footprints, no lingering smells, and no clues for what he was looking for.

With a sigh Jaune slumped against a tree to rest his weary eyes and try to stop the hallucinations. His eyes closed, he turned to his aura to be his eyes and ears. Sending it out in waves as a sort of makeshift sonar he could accurately paint the landscape and see what was coming. Soon he received a disturbance on the edge of the waves he sent out. Standing and facing the disturbance with sword and shield drawn and extended he moved forward to investigate.

He moved around a tree and saw a bush begin to rustle. It sounded like a large grim was tearing it's way through the underbrush. Getting into his combat stance, Jaune prepared to face whatever came out to fight him. It was a squirrel. Just a small little squirrel caused that much ruckus. Jaune chuckled and put away his weapons after the creature scurried off. He turned to return to his tree to continue his rest before he would head back to Beacon. But, before he could get two steps away from where the squirrel came out a rustling came again.

Turning around to see what he expected was the squirrel again, Jaune couldn't be farther from the truth. What he saw made his throat tighten and mind go blank. A pale, weak, staggering Pyrrha came out of the bush with torn clothing and armor, her hair tangled and knotted with twigs and leaves intertwined. Jaune was at a loss for words. all he could do was watch as she limped her way over to him dragging her spear behind her. Only when she was standing in front of him did she drop her spear and fall forward into his arms unconscious.

Jaune caught her limp body and shifted quickly to pick up her spear and set it on top of her picking her up bridal style and walking the direction he knew Beacon was in. He looked at her and could not even hope to fathom what kind of hell she had been through in all of this time. How she could have even survived as long as she did amazed him and at the same time it was as if he expected her to be able to.

It was early in the morning when he finally arrived at Beacon with Pyrrha still in her arms. Students were milling about now before class getting breakfast and running early errands. Everyone moved out of the way as they saw Jaune carrying someone they presumed was dead. One group of girls ran to tell the other members of JNPR about what they saw. Jaune maintained the face he wore for weeks now as he carried his girlfriend to the infirmary and handed her over to a group of frantic nurses. Once she was in the hands of people that could help her, Jaune went to the waiting room and fell exhausted into a chair. As he closed his eyes to rest his mind began to wander. ' I found her, I can't believe I found her. I'm going to have to talk to Ozpin about not letting my team take solo missions anymore. It's for their safety after all. I need to talk to Pyrrha also, I can't live with losing her again. Whoever came up with that "its better to have loved and lost" bull needs to be shot. This is the shock that I needed I guess. As soon as she recovers i'll do it then. I'll make her mine. When she recovers i'll propose...On second thought i'll need to get things ready first. OK I can do this, i'll make the preparations tomorrow.

**A.N* Yeah you could probably have guessed where that one was going huh? Well it was fun to write at least. Hope you enjoyed!**

**Lastchaos**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N Hallo! Bonjour! Nǐ hǎo! Hello, and welcome to the next chapter of Loved and Lost of which I promised to do a second chapter to along with two other one shots. So I really can't call them two-shots anymore. Hmmm. Anyway this chapter will take place over a couple of days (in text not real life) be sure to notice the day changes or it might get a tad bit confusing. Anyway, without further Adieu, I present, Loved and Lost CH:2.**

"Jaune? Jaune? JAUNE!" Jaune was aroused from his deep slumber from various shouts of his name. When he finally gathered the energy to open his eyes, and sit up straight he saw Nora, Ren and team RWBY looking at him with worry.

"Oh, hey guys, what's up?" Jaune asked with a yawn while attempting to move his arms and legs which had gone numb.

"What do you mean what's up!?" Weiss screamed at him. "You found Pyrrha, brought her here, and then just fall asleep in the waiting room and not bothering to find us!"

"Hey Hey Hey. I had my reasons. Besides I figured you guys would know soon enough with the way news travels around here. And look at the time, i've only been here for a couple minutes. So it wasn't that bad." Jaune defended while still trying to get the feeling back in his limbs.

"Guys the important thing is that he found her and that she's safe now." Ren jumped in to defend his leader who gave him a grateful smirk.

"Besides, I don't think he has slept much in the last two weeks so he would probably like to catch up on that. I'm sure all of our teachers will understand considering the circumstances. So can you guys take him up to the room while Nora and I check up on Pyrrha?" Ren asked as he pointed over his shoulder to her room door.

"No it's fine you all go in and see her. I can make it up to the room by myself." Jaune replied while trying to push his way onto his feet now that he regained feeling in his arms, but once he did make it to his feet he fell onto his face due to still having a lack of feeling in his legs.

"Actually on second thought, I wouldn't mind a little help getting there." Jaune said from his face down position on the floor.

"Fine. I guess we will take notes for you also so don't attend class. And when Pyrrha wakes up tell her that we will be by soon. Yang do you mind getting him?" Weiss answered and pointed at Jaune's prone body while hastily walking the other way.

"Up and at em Vomit-boy." Yang said as she hoisted Jaune's body over her shoulder and managed to stand up with a slight stumble. "Damn Jaune you've gotten heavy."

"Well you know i've only been a student at a combat school for four years. Would have never guessed that I would put on weight." Jaune replied in a snarky tone.

"Watch it with your attitude, I could just drop you and leave you here." Yang growled with a grunt as she tossed him around on her shoulder. Soon they arrived at the JNPR dorm room and after getting the key from Jaune, opened the door and deposited him on the bed. It wasn't long before Jaune finally succumbed to the lack of sleep over the last two weeks.

_*Time Jump 3 Days Forward*_

Slowly Jaune opened his eyes. Each making a popping noise as the fluid that sealed his eyelids together broke apart. As he sat up from his bed his body let out a symphony of cracks and pops each time he moved a joint. His body felt like he had been hit by a train, but at least it tells him his muscles are repairing.

After dressing into some casual clothes, Jaune left the room and headed for the cafeteria since it seemed to be around lunch. As he entered the building he saw his friends sitting at their usual table talking amiably. They greeted him as he sat and began to put food onto his plate.

"Sleep well Jaune?" Ruby asked as he stuffed a whole pancake into his mouth. He answered with a nod while preparing to stuff another in.

"Whoa slow down Jaune." Yang said as he finished off another plate full of food. "You're acting as if you haven't eaten in weeks."

"I've barely eaten anything in weeks Yang. I mean I just found Pyrrha yesterday, this will be my first real meal in a while." Jaune said with a chuckle while restocking his plate.

"Jaune. It's Saturday. You brought Pyrrha back three days ago. You put your body through a lot of stress. It took a couple days to actually start functioning again." Ren said as he patted Jaune's back due to him choking on the food he had in his mouth at the time.

After swallowing, Jaune looked up in a panic. "Wait three days, when does Pyrrha get out of the hospital?"

"They said sometime tonight when we visited her." Blake informed him as she casually flipped through a book.

"Tonight. Tonight. That means there's no time to lose! Weiss! I need you to go to Vale with me right away." Jaune said as he stood up but when he did he caught a whiff of his stench. "Change of plans, meet me at the docks in half an hour." Jaune then took off towards the exit.

"Wait! Why do you need me!" Weiss yelled at his retreating form but received no answer.

_*With Pyrrha in the Infirmary*_

"Hey guys." Pyrrha said with a smile as Ren and Nora entered her completely white infirmary room.

"Hi Pyrrha how are you feeling?" Ren asked returning her smile while Nora bounded over to her friends side to give her a hug.

"Good, better since I know that i'll be out of here in a couple hours." Pyrrha replied while returning Nora's hug, trying to match her friends strength. "How's Jaune?"

"Well he's finally awake, we just saw him at lunch." Nora responded as she plopped down into Ren's lap -eliciting a groan from the pink eyed boy- even though there was an open chair right next to him.

"Is he busy? I would have thought he would come and see me." Pyrrha said with a frown.

"I don't know what he is doing at the moment, he ended up dragging Weiss to Vale after I told him you would be getting out today. Don't worry though you will see him soon enough." Ren answered with a smile while placing a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"So, how did Jaune take it when I went missing?" Pyrrha asked continuing to frown. "I know he probably didn't take it all too well."

"That would be an understatement of how he took it. For a week and a half Jaune went out searching for you by himself after classes ended and wouldn't return till the morning where he would repeat the day." Ren answered mimicking her frown.

We all tried to stop him, it was obvious he was killing himself doing it; his grades were dropping, he barely ate, barely talked, the only time he slept was when he passed out from exhaustion. No matter what we did, what we said, he continued his routine until he found you three days ago."

"I feel bad for putting him through that." Pyrrha whispered with sadness in her eyes, but no matter how quiet she said it, her companions would hear it.

"You would have done the same thing Pyrrha." Nora said with a smile. "And, you probably would have killed twice the number of grimm he did. Which reminds me, walk through the forest of forever fall sometime, there hasn't been any grimm sighted even close to the school. You can thank Jaune for that."

_*Back to Jaune*_

After a quick shower, shave, and change of clothes, Jaune made his way down to the docks where an impatient ice queen was waiting.

"Why must I go along with you to Vale?" Weiss asked indignantly as she followed him onto an awaiting dustplane to Vale.

"I need your input on some things, and you will figure out what things later." Jaune replied simply with a shrug as the dustplane finally got off the ground. Soon they were in Vale with no incidents due to Jaune getting over his motion sickness the prior year. After exiting the dustplane and taking several turns down the main streets of Vale, Jaune stopped in front of the shop he was looking for.

"Really? You dragged me out here for this?" Weiss said softly, no anger whatsoever in her voice.

"Yeah, you are really the only one I trust with this. Ruby isn't mature enough to help, Yang would try to tease me instead of help, Blake, though a good person wouldn't be much help, Nora is well, Nora, and Ren is like a brother to me, but this isn't something I can ask him to help with." Jaune replied with a soft smile. "Well we're wasting time just standing here, lets get a move on."

"Yeah. Lets." Weiss said with a smile as she followed Jaune into the store. After looking around for a while with comments and suggestions from Weiss, Jaune was able to pick out a simple ring with a single diamond on top. However, this diamond had been engineered with dust to be able to absorb aura and glow the color the aura is.

"Sweet one item down." Jaune said as the exited the store. "Now I just need a new suit."

"I suppose you need me to help you with that also." Weiss sighed but not without a small smile.

"Please." Jaune responded with a smile of his own while walking to their net destination.

By the time Jaune had found everything he needed, along with Weiss's help, it was already getting dark. Jaune thought it best to change before heading back to beacon, so he used one of the changing rooms at the last shop to get into his suit. Weiss ended up fussing over his tie because he apparently didn't know what he was doing.

Once the duo returned to Beacon, Jaune thanked Weiss before sending a message to Ruby via scroll to meet him on the roof of their dorm and heading there himself. Soon, Ruby opened the door to the roof to find Jaune sitting on the edge of the roof with his feet hanging over the side.

"Hiya Jaune, watcha need?" Ruby asked as he stood up and faced her.

"Could you run around the roof with your semblance real quick?" Jaune asked in a bashful tone.

"Uhh sure. I guess." Ruby slowly responded before running darting back and forth across the roof. In no time at all the roof was covered in Rose petals.

"Sweet now everything is perfect! Thank you Ruby, I owe you one." Jaune said with a smile as he pulled out his scroll.

"Any time Jaune." Ruby said with a wave as she went down the stairs.

_*JNPR Dorm*_

Ren stopped his usual polishing of Storm Flower to pick up his scroll which was buzzing due to receiving a message.

_From: Jaune Arc_

_Message: Hey Ren, can you relay a message to Pyrrha real quick? Sweet, thanks. Tell her to meet me at the place trust began. She knows what I mean. Thanks again, see you soon._

"Hey Pyrrha, Jaune just told me to tell you to meet him at the place trust began and that you know what he means." Ren told his teammate who was looking through notes of what she had missed while she was gone.

"Yeah I know where he is talking about. I'll see you two later." Pyrrha said as she jumped up from her bed and ran out the door. In a matter of minutes Pyrrha found herself at the door to the roof. Taking a deep breath she opened the door and stepped onto the roof just to gasp at what she saw.

The roof was littered in rose petals compliments of Ruby no doubt, and Jaune was standing in the middle in a brand new suit with a grin plastered on his face. Pyrrha ran up to embrace her boyfriend -whom it felt like she hadn't seen him in a lifetime-with tears in welling up in her eyes.

"J-Jaune. I've missed you so much." Pyrrha gasped into his chest in between sobs.

"I've missed you too Pyrrha." Jaune replied while rubbing her back trying to sooth her. After a couple minutes her sobs quieted and she pulled back with a smile on her face.

"So what's with all this? New suit, rose petals all over the ground, and do I detect some classical music." Pyrrha asked still sporting her smile

"First of all the music wasn't part of the plan. Must be Team CRDL. And second, this is just buildup into why I needed to go to Vale today, of which I'm guessing Ren and Nora told you about." Jaune answered matching her smile with his own.

"Then why did you need to go to Vale today?" Pyrrha asked while taking a step back to give some room between them.

"Well. It's just that I...When you...Gahh this is difficult." Jaune started before taking a deep breath. "When you disappeared it felt like a part of me was torn away. I didn't know what to do with my life anymore. So I decided to go and kill any grimm that stood in my way. And that got me thinking.

I thought that, if there was any way I could see you again, to have you back safe and sound that I would want to make you mine and mine alone. So Pyrrha what this is all about is that I wanted to ask you." Jaune spoke while getting down on one knee. "If you will marry me."

Pyrrha was once again in tears at this point. Once Jaune asked her to marry him she rushed into his embrace, nearly knocking him over in the process while crying and spewing out affirmatives in between sobs.

**A/N Wow. This took me forever to write. I have no idea why, but that isn't important right now. What is important is that it is done and you are reading this. Any reviews are appreciated and don't forget to favorite and follow me for more updates!**


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